Stations Should Prepare Now
For
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On Wednesday,
November 9, 2011 at approximately 2:00 p.m. ET, the FCC, in
conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”), will
conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (“EAS”). Every broadcast station that participates in
the EAS network must take part in this national test. The FCC has prepared a handbook describing
the nationwide test, available here.
The handbook contains important
reminders, including the requirement that a copy of the EAS test handbook be
posted at normal duty stations or EAS equipment locations and made
immediately available to staff responsible for participation in the
November 9 test. Because each station must
report information about its participation in the test to the FCC, as
described below, we strongly recommend that you share this memo and copy the
EAS test handbook for distribution and review among relevant personnel. Test Procedures When the test commences,
FEMA will transmit the national level emergency EAS code to Primary Entry
Point (“PEP”) stations at the national level of the EAS. Each PEP station must rebroadcast the alert
to the general public in its service area and to the next level of EAS participating
stations which monitor that PEP station. The process will continue through all levels
of the EAS until the alert has been distributed nationwide. The test will last for approximately three
and a half minutes. Reporting Requirement The FCC has established an
electronic filing system (available here) that EAS participants
may use to submit the required information. The FCC strongly encourages stations to
pre-register basic background information about each participating station
beginning now, in advance of the actual test. The FCC also asks that stations report
immediately following the test on November 9 whether the EAS test
message was received and whether it was broadcast by the station. Additional information about each station’s
performance during the test must also be reported, not later than
December 27, 2011. By December 27, 2011,
each EAS participating station must report the following information to the
FCC about the national test: ·
whether the
station received the alert message and whether it properly retransmitted the
alert; ·
for any station
not able to receive and/or transmit the alert, a “best effort” diagnostic
analysis regarding the cause(s) for such failure; ·
the EAS
participant’s station identification and level of designation; ·
the date/time of
receipt of the Emergency Alert Notification (“EAN”) message by the station; ·
the date/time of
PEP station acknowledgement of receipt of the EAN message to the FEMA
Operation Center (if applicable); ·
the date/time of
initiation of actual broadcast of the test “Presidential” message; ·
the date/time of
receipt of the End of Message by the station; ·
the identity of
the station(s) the EAS participant was monitoring at the time of the test;
and ·
the make and model number of the EAS equipment used by the
EAS participant. The FCC has also
established a website (available here)
dedicated to the nationwide EAS test that contains other important
information and resources, such as PSAs that stations can use to inform their
audience in advance of the test. If you have any questions
concerning the upcoming national EAS test or any other aspect of the FCC’s
EAS rules, please contact your primary attorney in our office. October 27, 2011 |
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This memorandum is intended only as a general discussion of these issues and should not be regarded as legal advice. We would be pleased to provide additional details or advice about specific situations if desired. Copyright © 2011, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
Suite 600 | Washington, DC 20006-1809 To Unsubscribe: Unsubscribe | To Update Client Info: Update Client Info |
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